Liberal MLA Kent Hehr calls for merger of the left in bid to defeat Tories

CALGARY — Liberal MLA Kent Hehr is calling on all “progressive” politicians and supporters in the province to come together in a single, big tent party to have a chance at beating the Redford Tories.

Although he acknowledged it will be difficult to gain traction for his idea, Hehr said he was spurred to speak out after seeing the results of the Calgary Centre byelection last month.

In that closely watched contest, progressive parties received more than 60 per cent of the popular vote but support was split between Liberal Harvey Locke and Green candidate Chris Turner, and, to a lesser extent, New Democrat Dan Meades.

Conservative candidate Joan Crockatt won the day.

Looking to provincial politics, Hehr said if the Alberta Liberals, NDP, Alberta party and Green party joined forces, they could pool resources and at least push the Wildrose party out of second place and form the official Opposition.

“What keeps us apart is rugged tribalism that leads to infighting between us and keeps our guns pointed squarely at each other instead of focusing our fire on the right-wing in this province,” the outspoken Calgary-Buffalo MLA said in the blog post on daveberta.ca last week.

“Let me be the first to say, I’m putting down my gun, and am open to all conversations with no preconditions. We need to figure out how we can come together in a big tent party. Otherwise, we are wasting our time.”

In an interview, Hehr said he helped pay for a survey of 250 Alberta progressives on Sept. 20 and 21. The results suggested Liberal and New Democrat supporters don’t believe the name or party colours are important, and want to work together, speak with one voice in the legislature, and even merge political organizations.

Hehr added: “If you can’t form a big tent part when you agree 90 per cent of the time, what’s the point?”

But in the last provincial election, the Alberta Liberals and NDP parties each got 10 per cent of the popular vote while the official Opposition Wildrose won 34 per cent and the Progressive Conservatives won 44 per cent. Premier Alison Redford’s party was aided in some part by Liberal supporters who feared a Wildrose government would be too right-wing.

Hehr’s position also seems to be at odds with the leadership of the Liberal and NDP parties.

Liberal Leader Raj Sherman has said working with other parties is not a priority and the greatest challenge for his party is building its membership, organization and finances.

Longtime NDP Leader Brian Mason threw even more cold water on the idea this week, saying his party made a gain in the popular vote in last April’s election, and he’s trying to make the NDP welcoming to more progressive voters.

“The memberships of both the Liberal party and the NDP have been quite clear that that’s not a direction they want to go,” Mason said.

“I sympathize with (Hehr’s) intent. But having been around for awhile, I know what the political reality is.”

Calgary-Mountain View MLA David Swann, who served as leader of the Alberta Liberals between December 2008 and September 2011 and has in the past spoken of finding ways to work with other parties, said the moment for discussing a unite-the-progressives movement has passed.

“We worked at that for a couple of years. And I certainly took a lot of hits over it,” Swann said. “But there’s no question in my mind that the New Democrats are fully entrenched in their particular point of view and they’re not about to change.”

However, Corey Hogan, a former executive director and campaign manager for the Alberta Liberals — who also helped pay for the poll of progressives in September — said “the attitudes of party brass are much more entrenched on these issues than the attitudes of the supporters of the parties are.”

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Liberal MLA Kent Hehr calls for merger of the left in bid to defeat Tories

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